Study: Adding Fruits And Veggies To Your Diet Won't Help You Lose Weight

The claim: Simply adding more healthy fruits and vegetables to your diet won’t help you lose weight, concludes a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The research: The study team analyzed seven diet studies featuring roughly 1,200 participants. Their goal: Find evidence that the advice to eat more produce could help people lose weight. The study team came up empty, at least for those hoping fruits and vegetables are a secret, waist-slimming diet ingredient.

What it means: A fruit or vegetable calorie is still a calorie, explains study coauthor Kathryn Kaiser, PhD, a microbiologist at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Unless you lower your total daily calorie intake, swapping in fruit or vegetable calories for other types of foods won’t lead to weight loss, Kaiser says.

The bottom line: “There are many health benefits from eating lots of fruits and vegetables,” Kaiser stresses. From disease prevention to stress reduction, it’s a great idea to get more produce into your diet. “But there is no evidence that simply eating more of them will cause weight loss,” Kaiser adds.